1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicle illumination device, a vehicle illumination control method, and a vehicle illumination control program, and in particular to a vehicle illumination device, a vehicle illumination control method and a vehicle illumination control program for controlling the light distribution of a vehicle light such as a front light or the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
Technology for a vehicle illumination device for controlling the light distribution of a vehicle light such as a front light or the like has been proposed in, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) No. 2006-21631.
The technology proposed in JP-A No. 2006-21631 is provided with: plural light sources for forming a predetermined light distribution pattern that includes overall a main light distribution portion and a peripheral light distribution portion, which respectively illuminate different regions; a camera for light capture in the forward direction from a vehicle; a dangerous object determining unit for determining objects that are of danger to the vehicle on the basis of the images that have been captured by the camera; and a light source control unit for changing the direction of light from plural light sources to shine on a dangerous object when a dangerous object has been determined by the dangerous object determining unit to be outside of the main light distribution portion.
Furthermore, in the technology described in JP-A No. 2006-21631, the brightness of headlights of an oncoming vehicle are detected from the image of the camera, and by lowering the brightness of the light sources in the light distribution pattern that are facing toward the oncoming vehicle lane side, the glare light toward an oncoming vehicle is reduced.
However, in the technology described in JP-A No. 2006-21631, when the headlights of an oncoming vehicle are being detected from the images of the camera, light that has been irradiated from the vehicle itself, which has been reflected from reflective objects such as mirrors and the like is detected, and this light might be determined falsely as being the headlights of an oncoming vehicle, and in such a case light distribution control would be carried out for light from the vehicle itself.